Charting Success: Brad Filiponi's Journey from Photographer to Real Estate Innovator

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Beyond the Signboard, where you get the
opportunity to learn all thereis to know about your real
estate journey fromprofessionals who are passionate
about property.
I'm Amy Bennett, your host, andI look forward to providing you
with education, inspiration anda behind-the-scenes look at the
world of real estate.
Well, here we are, Mr BradFilippone, Exciting to have you

(00:33):
here.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thanks for having us, Amy.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I am so excited.
We have a very long historytogether and we will be able to
delve and share into that Reallyexcited to have you here,
sunshine Coast living legend,the man, the myth.
Co-founder of boxbrowniecom.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Thank you very much.
I was just checking out thebuttons, obviously matching the
hair, the pink and the purple,yeah that's right.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's all on brand.
Absolutely so great to have youon the podcast.
So good to have you back on thecoast as well.
You're a man that is travellinga lot with your incredible
career and business.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yes, over the.
You could sort of almost reallycall it.
I always say eight yearsbecause that's how old my oldest
son is and it was reallystarted all when he was
literally still in the womb andbeing born.
But yeah, probably eight yearsof international travel, further
and more times than anyone elsein the scene, I'd say.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, what was it?
Over 200 nights away, somethinglike that.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Oh look, you know, on average, yeah, each year I was
away more than I was home, and Iwould hate to actually add up
all the travel hours in transitand flights that I did.
It would be fun to do one day,but at the moment we're just too
busy doing something else.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
What were you doing in your travel time?
What do you use in that time?
Transit on planes?
Do you sort of maximise thattime or have a break?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
It's hard, it's a bit of both, it depends.
Unlike most people, we justwon't do one conference.
We might do three, four, five,six in a row.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, do three four, five, six in a row.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, absolutely so, like literally it's a conference
bender, yes, and you knowyou're fighting with your
international time zonedifferences and you know, not
just sort of flying from stateto state, which you know a lot
of other, you know people woulddo as well in the scene.
So, yeah, it's been a wild ride.
I think I'm glad you know thisyear we've really turned off the
travel.
We're still doing conferences.

(02:24):
I'm doing a lot less andworking in the business a lot
more.
I just don't want to be awayfrom my kids as much as I don't
have to, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
I've done a lot of that.
Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it,to have that time?
You mentioned you've just had afamily holiday as well.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
We just went to Bali, which was really good.
Eight days over there just off.
Technology obviously stillworked every day.
It was my 40th birthday.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So we just sort of snuck over.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Thank you very much, thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
You made it, yeah, I made it, yeah.
Grateful for that, oh sneakingup.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
For me it was good, you know, a couple of quiet
bintangs and literally a coupleof massages every day.
That's really what we go overfor and just to relax and live
in you know, balinese time, Iguess, if you want to call it
that.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, such a happy country and so grateful.
You know, despite having youknow not much you know.
It just shows you what'simportant in life doesn't it?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I think they're just beautiful inside and out.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I mean, and everyone's got a smile on their
face.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know it's organised chaos,but, as you said, everyone's
happy, so it's a great place forthe kids.
You know what I mean.
And you know we're just kickingsoccer balls on the beach each
night.
It's just, you know the thingsthat you should be doing here on
the coast, but you forget aboutit, and it's been a really good
reset for me.
So, yeah, once a week I'll putit in my diary where we're going
down the beach and kicking theballs so just things like that.

(03:43):
It's almost like just living thesimpler life sometimes can be
amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Absolutely.
We were just talking about thatLike it's really going back to
basics, isn't it?
And I think you know that.
You know we were both reallyfortunate to have an amazing you
know upbringing here on thecoast.
So before we kind of get deepinto the world of Box Brownie.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Let's learn a little bit about your career journey.
It's its own chapter, that'sfor sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I suppose.
Obviously I finished highschool, finished grade 12.
I went to a private school hereon the Sunshine Coast, Emanuel
Lutheran College.
Never really an academic, Proudto say, my OP was 24 out of 25.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Hey, just beat me.
I was 21.
So we were there together.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
So I think you know I remember going to a really
prestige, you know school inMelbourne and I remember the
principal back then saying youget out what you put in.
And it's really stuck in mymind ever since then.
So, yeah, school wasn't a bigthing for me, but I did a TAFE
course after school, worked witha very famous photographer here

(04:47):
on the coast called GregGardner.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, Greg's amazing.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Love Greg, love my time with him.
I'd love to maybe be hisassistant again one day.
You never know.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
So funny because it seems that he's born quite a few
real estate agents under hiswing.
Yes, yeah, amazing so he's.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I was probably's, maybe he's his first off shooter
, if you want to call it that.
We did a lot of weddings.
He taught me taught me theimportance of real estate photos
and back then obviously therewas no rea domain things like
that.
So it was, uh, the sunshinecoast property week, yes, in the
daily, yes, and obviously backthen it all wasn't color gloss
yeah, okay, so it was black andwhite wow, all throughout and

(05:25):
only the edges were colour gloss.
Okay, so that's how long I'vebeen doing it, and back then I
was actually shooting on filmcamera.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
I thought you'd say that yeah gosh Processing the
photos.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Big W was my photo lab.
We'd get them processed.
I'd separate them.
Good bad, no good, keep thatone.
And whatever they got, they got.
Yeah, wow, and then Ihand-delivered them back to the
office literally most of thetime overnight.
Yes, but it was a very nichething back then.
You know, agents were justtaking photos on their little

(05:56):
film cameras and doing itthemselves, and the quality was
a lot different.
So I've been in the game a longtime.
Not many people can say that.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
I like that.
I game a long time.
Not many people can say that Ilike that.
I had Grant Smith on thepodcast not long ago.
He was actually a I can'tremember what it was.
He worked for Rabbit Photo hereon the coast.
Oh really, yeah, and I was justsaying about I used to get my
films done at Kmart inMooroochydore.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Funny we were just talking about that Fun fact I
think I told Grant.
I was on a cruise recently andhe was on it?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, I heard I think you feature on his podcast as
well.
Yeah, Grant, how?

Speaker 2 (06:26):
are you mate?
So yeah, look, I did my REIQcourse back when David Carrera
was training.
Okay yes, grant did it the sametime I did.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
There you go, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's epic, that's
so cool.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
I still remember him from back then.
Yeah, amazing, amazing.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Look, he's an incredible Asian, incredible
person and I think to have thattenure in the industry is insane
.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
So I attest to you as well.
Yeah, it's kind of like both ofus, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
So what would you capture?
I'm just fascinated by what yousaid about the black and white
image, so you would have had tobeen really oh, so yeah, it was
film.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
It wasn't black and white.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
It was still colour, but when it was printed it was
black and white.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
So you had to so yeah , so a lot of the things I
actually yeah, so the propertyweek itself was black and white.
Yes, most of the photos I wastaking were for the colour gloss
.
Okay, so it was film cameracolour film process and it would
get probably scanned, yes, andplaced in.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
It's terrible, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
And somehow submitted to the Daily.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
And it was always for the colour gloss.
You know, sometimes I hadplenty of features on the front
page and back pages, all thatsort of thing.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, amazing, probably still got them lying
around, but it really matters.
Oh, it's good when you go back.
The rest is history.
Yeah, you go through thosearchives.
So then you moved into realestate.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
I did, I did.
I worked for back then it wasPRD Nationwide Kiwana Waters.
Yes, back when Sid Walker hadthe Maroochdore office working
under Mark Uncle.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, wow, so I did my full REIQ licence.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
you know official agent, but back then Grant was
probably the youngest personselling real estate.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Correct, but it wasn't a thing like it is now
yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
It actually wasn't, so I was a bit scared to dive in
.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, chat through that.
So you felt there was an agebarrier.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
I believe so.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, absolutely, especially back then.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
This was a long time ago and I was customer service
for at least two years, so Ireally learned the nuts and
bolts of the industry.
Obviously how importantmarketing was yeah, absolutely,
because all we were selling wasBedina beachfront, deep water
canal front, and that was reallyit.
So it was always about themarketing.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Well, and you know we talk about what that cost as
well.
You know, have those full pagearticles in print, your huge
campaigns, weren't they?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh, if you've got a half page, quarter page, full
page like thousands back then,which is probably, I don't know.
I'd feel it would feel moreexpensive back than it would now
.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Absolutely, and I think there'd be no sort of
payment plan options or anythinglike that like there is
nowadays.
So you know, having theconfidence around, I think
that's probably a really keycomponent, isn't it?
Having the confidence to beable to demonstrate excuse me,
to a client why marketing isimportant.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
You know when you're selling your biggest asset.
Let's face it.
You know money doesn't grow ontrees and you know you've got to
be really careful with themoney you earn, because it's
hard to earn, easy to spendright, Absolutely, that's right.
You know marketing, it is sucha fiddle thing.
You know you can get so muchbenefit from it.
But then of course you can justblow money out the window at
the same time.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, and I think probably like talking about your
time in real estate, it wouldhave been really hard to measure
, you know, the results of thosemarketing campaigns, so
different to now where we've gotreports, analytics, live.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
I mean now I can see how many people have added an
open home to their plan.
On realestatecom, you can dosplit tests on Facebook ads.
You know you can.
You've got the analytics.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's really all there , and even when it is all there,
it's too hard to gaugesometimes.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Correct Absolutely, yeah, it's really all there.
And even when it is all there,it's still hard to gauge
sometimes too right, correctabsolutely yeah, obviously
everyone needs marketing.
Good marketing sells, and ofcourse it's all about keeping
pricing fair for homeowners,really because it's an expensive
task to sell a house.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
It's a big undertaking.
So that time that you had as anagent, what would you say were
your key measures of success?
What was your standout features?

Speaker 2 (10:08):
So I never sold.
But yeah, I think customerservice, because obviously
that's what I did.
We're still really high oncustomer service with the
business we're in.
Yeah, absolutely.
Hence why I'm not training.
We might dive into that a bitlater on, but I'm literally
recording personalised videosright here, right now.
I've just finished before thispodcast and you know, I'm the

(10:29):
founder of the business and I'mthe guy writing personalised
video messages and recordingthem saying g'day trying to put
that human touch on a digitalmarketing platform, I guess
you'd say we are real peoplebehind the scenes.
you know, if we could talk toeveryone, I wish we could, but
you know, you just got to doyour best.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
You've always remained really humble and
obviously we'll chat through.
But you know the growth of yourbusiness is through the roof
and I said to you just off airbefore we started that even
though you've got over 200,000customers, which the mind just
boggles, you know, for anamazing Sunshine Coast-based
company.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
And don't worry, I will give you the accolades you
deserve, because I know you aresuper humble.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
But honestly, you know, to still have that
personal connection.
You know, I know you come anddo training with our team and
even your time today, I reallyappreciate it.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I'm just grateful to be in the position I'm in Amy.
I loved my job being a realestate agent.
Obviously I wanted to start afamily, yes, and you know I felt
like I was in the rat race.
So I'm glad I've sort ofunlocked that, doing what I love
and almost paving the way likeno one had done before.
So that's what I like the most,I think.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah, so from real estate straight into photography
.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah.
So yes, yes and no.
I'm just trying to work it backnow.
See, once you get over 40, brad, that's it.
Oh, it's hard.
So pretty much yeah.
I worked in real estate, workedfor Mark.
It was a great experience.
It's really helped.
Another stepping stone in whatI'm doing today.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
My dad had many businesses probably the funnest
one I did I worked for.
He had an import yard.
So I'm into all my fast cars,especially the Japanese stuff.
So he had a wrecking yard whereback then we'd import motors
for like cars, like your carsand trucks, and four wheel
drives and all that.
And he had a full performanceside which we opened up and-.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Was that here on the coast?
It was here on the coast,Cumber Park.
Yeah, epic, yeah awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
So I used to unpack containers 40 foot from Japan,
you know with.
You know forklifts so I'd cutcars in half.
You know all that sort of stuff.
I'm not a mechanically mindeddude but I just can appreciate
it all yeah awesome.
Just love going fast.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, a shared passion that we have.
We do like our cars.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
And really from there I was working for Dad, so I had
a guaranteed job and I wasreally trying to build my
photography section up.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
So there was a good few years there and we built a
really good sort of.
I branched off and did a reallygood high-performance Subaru
business.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay, where we?

Speaker 2 (12:55):
were getting parts where no one else could get you
know straight from Japan.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
How did you source those?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Dad had his contacts.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, awesome, so relationships 100%.
Yeah, amazing, so once again.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, relationships, customer service just.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
I suppose Doing what you say you're going to do, 100%
.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, you know that sort of dad and that's probably
something he's taught me as well.
Yeah, amazing.
So really it was between thatand obviously that sort of dad
ended up selling the business,selling the business, and then
at that sort of same time I'dbuilt up enough where I could
just go out on my own and justbe a photographer.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Huge step which I was .

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, it was because you're sort of wondering oh,
I've got jobs this week, butwhat's happening next week?
You know, you just have thatworry.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Absolutely.
That's exactly right and youwere married at that stage.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
No, no, single, you know, probably, you know just
sort of running amok here on theSunshine.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Coast Partying at Fridays.
And the rest don't you get 240?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
240B, yeah, and you know and all the rest.
But you know I bought a housein Nambour so obviously you know
was trying to do theresponsible thing.
But yeah, it's just thatunknown.
You just don't know what'saround the corner.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
It's so courageous Like I love people's tenacity in
doing that, and it does comedown to a lot of self-belief,
but bloody hard work, I wouldimagine as well.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
And you know the population wasn't as big as what
it is now.
So like yeah, there was lesscompetition in what I was doing,
but it's just that you knowyou're a young adult and there's
just so many unknowns whenyou've never run your own
business or anything like that.
I never had staff my wholecareer.
Yeah, that was real estatephotography specifically, or did

(14:27):
you kind of do a little bit ofeverything I just did real
estate photography.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
And would you suggest that that was something that
was that obviously continued on?
But do you think that havingthat niche oh look, it always
helps.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, of course, back then, every man and his dog's
sister is a real estatephotographer.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, it's quite a big, thing, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Charging you know big money for it now.
Back then I was, just as I said, just a humble bloke.
He really enjoyed my job.
I love real estate.
I love the Sunshine Coast.
Look at today it's a beautifulday it's cracking, isn't it?
Yeah, and just checking outreal estate.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, it's amazing.
It was really really cool.
Something that gets under yourskin with it, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh, I've been in.
I just love it.
I like it, I love thearchitecture, I love you.
Know different, just everythingabout homes.
It's cool in different spotsand every home has something
unique to offer has somethingunique to offer.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
I think that's, you know, probably the magic that
you see in photography and I'vecertainly, you know, seen you in
action but also just yourability.
You are an attention to detailperson, I know, even when we
were setting up today Can't helpmyself.
Hey, it's a good quality tohave.
I think that you know how youdo.
One thing is how you doeverything, and I know you're
fastidious.
You know, anytime we've done ashoot, you know always looking

(15:43):
at where is the light comingfrom, making sure all the lights
are on.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
And just you know things like obviously now it's
pretty standard, but just likecushions and are the chairs, all
you know pushed in the rightway?
Are the taps facing the rightway?
It's just.
I can probably blame my motherfor that.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Look, I'm not dissimilar myself.
Although I haven't masteredputting my clothes away, much to
my husband's disgust, that'sthe one thing I'm still guilty
of that.
Yeah, we've got to have onething.
So you were able to I guess youknow work with agents on the
coast to take that you knowworry off their hands.
As far as the photography, youwere delivering the results on
time.

(16:18):
They were getting propertiessold.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Definitely, and I think back when I was film days,
it was all about education.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Why do I need photography?
Why do I need a pro?

Speaker 2 (16:26):
photographer when I can just do it myself?

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Now it's kind of going back that way again I feel
yeah, absolutely.
I just ran down the window atan agent today when I was
grabbing a quick boost juicewith a family and I'm like we'll
just chat to him and he's aboutto try a new app which is great
Snap, snap Snap which we'llprobably talk about later.
But I'm just sort of sick ofplaying back and forth with
photographers when I can shootresults of my phone that look as

(16:49):
good Well technology hasevolved just exponentially.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
I mean, you probably don't know, my first role when I
was 14 in pharmacy was actuallymanaging our photographics
counter.
So this was in Beawar here onthe coast.
We didn't do the processing butwe would pop it in a bag, it
would go off to Brisbane, itwould come back the next day and
then you know, that evolved to.

(17:14):
So I was ordering film and thenthat evolved to selling digital
cameras and I think then waslike 16 and it wouldn't have
been Meg.
I don't know, maybe it was thememory card, so it was like 10
photos and then that was doneand then they got bigger and I
think it was like a dollar permeg or so.
I don't even know how that theratio goes with what we're
shooting now.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's just yeah, it's yeah, megapixels keep getting
bigger and, yeah, so does thequality from digital cameras.
But you know, I think Sonyreleased a good statement,
probably roughly two years ago,saying in three years the DSLR
will be killed off because ofsmartphones.
The cameras are getting good,and I remember the first day I
saw the iPhone 11 with awide-angle lens.

(17:51):
That's when I'm like man, weneed to look back into this app
and just have another option forpeople, because, as we spoke
earlier, selling a home is avery expensive ordeal.
Sure, so you just needcost-effective ways to sell your
biggest asset.
I would say Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
All right, let's go back to the journey of Box
Brownie, because it is so.
It's such a lovely story, it'ssomething I am so proud of, you
and Mel, for what you'veachieved.
Honestly, it's incredible and Iknow you are super humble but I
am going to get you to get abit deep.
But you know, let's chat about.
You know you said to me off airabout registering the domain

(18:28):
and yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
So obviously it's been a bit of a dream.
We are in Caloundra at themoment.
Just so the viewers know thename boxbrowniecom it was
completely my.
It was the name I wanted.
Yeah, Tell us about why Well thereason is there's a few or
there's one reason why Iremember lugging all my big

(18:50):
camera gear up, which is alwayson a backpack, because it was
easier to have all my cameras inthat and my tripod.
And I remember the actual.
It was a property managementlisting, I remember, but it was
vacant and I was with the agentand we walked up let's call it
five or six flight of stairsbecause it was somewhere in
Kings Beach.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I think it was Kings Beach.
I knew you'd say that I knowthose stairs, so there were
stairs there.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
I can't remember the actual physical spot.
I could probably find it if wewent for a drive.
And I remember when we got upthere and I'm flicking on my
lights, preparing the house asyou spoke about, and I remember
the agent saying like still tothis day oh gosh, we're
certainly not shooting on theold Brownie cameras, are we?

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
So that was it.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it?
It didn't click then, but lateron it clicked.
Yeah, absolutely the domainwasn't available.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
I remember I had to actually pay three and a half
grand for it.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's huge Brad, A lot of money 10 plus years ago.
Oh let's, I'd almost call itclose to 13.
Yeah, Incredible.
I didn't have the money, or I?

Speaker 2 (19:53):
or I did it.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
I was always really good with my tax, so I'd always
make sure I put my you know mytax and GC in a separate folder.
I never spent it.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yeah, well done that's.
That's.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
That's big and my accountant always said you know,
brad, no one really does that.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
But I'm like hey, I'm a photographer.
You know if I've got to paythis money back.
I'm all by the books, right?

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Do one thing, do it right, Correct.
So I did all that, but I couldalways spend that money on.
I'd call it, let's call itbusiness expenses.
So if I need a laptop or acamera, lens, I'd use that money
and I was always fine my wholeamazing, so did you have to buy
it off someone else?
So I had to buy it off a domainreseller.
Okay, so it was all legit.

(20:28):
It didn't look dodgy to me.
I didn't even know what I wasdoing, yeah, but I bought it.
Yeah, amazing, yeah.
So, and there was anotherwebsite I bought.
We have let it lapse sinceSomeone has swooped it up but,
look, we're too busy to worryabout that sort of stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
You've got enough going on.
So then Mel joined.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Mel, yeah, so I built a working prototype Awesome.
The reason how that happened isI told someone about the idea
and they didn't think it wasgoing to work that well and I
was like, cool, I'm going tofollow my heart.
I won't say who that was.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, it's all good.
Don't you need that in life,though?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
No, it was more, just like I think just follow your
heart, amy.
Don't listen to the noise.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Totally.
But I tell you what.
I remember having a commentwhen I moved into my role and I
thought at the time it reallystung.
But I tell you what it was thefuel that gave me the worry
You've got to rip the band-aidoff.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, absolutely Nothing.
Good is easy right.
I couldn't agree more you knowall thereabouts, as they say,
but I started, I just acted isthe best way to put it Amazing
and.
I'll tell you how I did that.
It's all relative to being onsite and being a photographer.
So once again, it was actuallya property management listing.
Got chatting to the guy, hadthis idea in my head.

(21:43):
People told me it wasn't goingto work.
I was like, well, I need itmyself.
Yes, so that's why I want totry this.
You know, I love my job but Ineed to change.
So I shot the property.
I got chatting to the tenant.
We were talking about movingthings before.
I'm very courteous, hey, youknow the photos will reflect me.
Do you mind if I just move this?

Speaker 1 (22:03):
and this.
You feel awkward doing it.
Yeah, of course no one bloodywants to do it.
Toothbrushes is the worst forme.
Oh, dirty undies.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Dirty undies when they didn't have hand sanitizer
invented then.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, I could have gone a bit deeper too.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, so could I you get where I'm going and look,
you know, I did all that and Igot chatted to the guy.
He's a web designer, so I justacted and I said, let's go.
So this website was really good.
This particular websiteactually picked up Stockland a
few years later.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Which is pretty cool.
That's huge.
And it linked to Dropbox.
It wasn't automated, it worked.
It was a business, so it didn'tbreak any records, especially
back then, but it worked and itwas the start of the journey.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Incredible Served its purpose.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
So I just think you know if anyone listening, if
you've got an idea, peopletelling you it's not going to
work, and you know something inyour heart's telling you just to
go for it.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Well, you found a gap , didn't you?
And I think that's the thingyou know.
When you come from an industry,you see what's missing, you see
an opportunity and I thinkthat's you know very much.
A premise of this podcast isreally about demonstrating the
behind the scenes of theindustry but also your business
as well, I guess dispellingmyths and showcasing that hard
work does pay off.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
but Not all the time, unfortunately.
No, that's true, and thenthat's what I say to people I'm
like it's really sad People canwork so hard their whole life
and just not get ahead yeah,absolutely, I think I think.
But yeah, that's probably onething I'd like to post, but just
have a go absolutely just havea go, yeah make sure you
surround yourself with people,with good people.
I think that's a big thing.
Like you can't, can't getfurther in life by you know,

(23:37):
maybe sort of you know, yougotta, you gotta expand your
circle.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
A little bit, chat through that because I, because
I think that's an absolutestrength of yours.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, look, you know you probably call me a bit of an
introvert.
You know I'm loud, you know Iseem like I'm bubbly, but you
know, deep down I'm just a dudefrom the sunny coast.
But now when you're forced inthe deep end, you've just got to
tread water and you've just gotto.
I think you've just got to beyourself.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Totally.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
I think that's the thing, whether people like you
or not, it's just no BS.
You know what I mean and youknow it's easier to tell the
truth and remember what you liedabout.
Absolutely, you know like Ijust think, that's how I've
always come across, that's howI've always been brought up as a
kid.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Do as you say, as you spoke about before, and if
you're yeah, and ask for help.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
You know, like that's probably one of my biggest life
lessons was just to be able togo hey, you know and learn from
people that are better than you.
Like that's amazing.
I always take advice fromanyone?
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I'm not no at all, far from it.
I don't think anyone ever is.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
But you know you've said about expanding your circle
as well, because really thereis so much to learn from all
different.
You know people's backgrounds,age, sex, race.
You know, and especially withyour experience and travelling
the world.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Culture.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Absolutely.
Yeah, there's just so much tobe.
You know, I think life is anongoing learning, so have a chat
.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Let's chat about how Box Brownie came about, the
founding partners, Well yeah,well, look, I think Box Brownie
really came apart Like I wasready to pack photography in and
I remember you were like thisbecause of all the travel you
know I've done.
I said to my wife I had acouple of mates who'd gone to WA
, western Australia, to work inthe mines.
Yes, I had a couple of mateswho'd gone to WA, western

(25:24):
Australia, to work in the minesand obviously good money there.
My goal back then was to dothat, just to give up
photography Before I'd, probablybefore this idea sparked and
this is actually all part of itand I remember saying to my wife
oh, I want to do this, you know, and she's a hairdresser and
she had a couple of clients andyou know what she said she goes
no long distance relationshipwow, I don't think it'll work

(25:44):
because I've got clients whohave done that and the families
have broken up yeah andobviously my idea was I've got
no, I've got no expertiseanywhere else except what you
know real estate marketing, ifyou want to call it that and
that's that sort of.
hit me and I remember sittingdown once and I got an email.
You get pestered by Indianeditors.

(26:06):
If you want to call it that, ifyou're a photographer, sure, to
this day they email me yeah,okay, and you know, I try.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
I do get them on Instagram as well, asking advice
.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Everywhere, everywhere.
So one day you get pestered,pestered, pestered, and you know
, try to say it nicely- I don'tmean no disrespect.
Yeah, of course, and it's likeit's pretty bad, but they're
hustlers and you can appreciatethat right.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Totally, that's right .
And volume, you know, I thinkyou know like you get 10,000
no's in maybe one year, oh, 100%right.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
They're just doing their best, which is great, and
I remember one time I wasalready using them and before
Box Brownie I tried hundreds ofthem and they were terrible,
terrible, terrible, terrible.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
So this was editing photos, is that?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, sorry.
So this is yeah.
When you're a photographer, ifyou've got a website, you'll get
offshore people trying tocontact you to do your editing.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, perfect, because as a photographer.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
you know you make more money on site doing more
shoots.
Yeah, correct, the editing isalmost like the graveyard shift,
like I've got to edit ninehouses now.
You're up until midnight.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yes, yeah, you want it back tomorrow.
Right To get the photos back.
Yesterday I was going to saybut you get the photos back
tomorrow to the agents, and thendo it all again.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
Correct, it's just like.
That was the rhythm I was infor years, and the amount of
computers I blew up just fromworking them was crazy, like I
went through heaps.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Have you met a computer that's as fast as you?
Yet?

Speaker 2 (27:24):
No, probably Mel's server at an office, I reckon
yeah, but like it really startedfrom there and I remember being
contacted by an editor andthere was like it was a price
difference and I was like pennydropped yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
With what my wife said and that, yes, I was like
oh, so now I'm only doing that.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
At first I was paying $5 a photo to edit it.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Then it dropped down to $3 and then eventually, you
know, it sort of goes from there.
But now we're charging $2.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
A photo to give you an idea?

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, absolutely, and we will drop our prices as we
scale up.
That is proven with ourbusiness.
So we're like nothing elsereally out there.
There's no subscriptions, nomonthly fees.
We just try and be the fairguys in the industry.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Agents come and go.
There's 30% less agents now inAmerica, you know so.
You know.
No one wants a subscription topay for something they're not
using.
So that's always been our model.
But that's really where it camefrom.
Was that desperation of needinga career change and trying to
support my family?

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I just wanted to pay my house off.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah, amazing, because, you know, isn't that
the Australian dream, oranyone's dream, to pay off their
family home right?

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Absolutely, and I think that's yeah, we spoke
about that as well off air, likeabout that as well off air,
like the.
You know, we were just sayingyou know you put that what you
do in five years, you know, soyou don't have to suffer for 50
years.
I mean, you know, I saw, youknow my mum was by herself and
paying a mortgage by herself,and you're exactly right, you
know you've got to have thatdriving force.
What are you, you know?
What are you running from andwhat are you running towards?

Speaker 2 (28:50):
I think, as they say, you know the more or you sweat
in peace unless you bleed in war.
Like it's just like do the hardyards, you know, and you know
not always, but you know focusthat energy and you know a lot
of the time it can pay off foryou.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
And even when it doesn't, brad, like what a
lesson in life you know, like Ithink with you.
Know, with success it's aninternal success and it doesn't
have to be an outward success.
Or, you know, like, some of mybiggest life lessons have come
from failures or mistakes, or,like you said, that ability to
put your hand up and ask forhelp.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
I think too it's like .
I know it's hard to say at thetime, but somehow you've always
got to find a positive from anegative Always.

Speaker 1 (29:26):

Speaker 2 (29:27):
And even if it's not right, I think it's a mentality
thing, Absolutely no.
You've sort of got to getcomfortable doing the things
you're uncomfortable at.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yeah, it's so true.
You just have to do it Flex themuscle, the tough ones, yep.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
You know, it's like going to the gym and doing your
bicep curls or whatever you do,like.
I think it's just consistency,you know what I mean?
Correct, yeah, and just try andkeep it real.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Absolutely.
I think that's so important.
So you had your overseaseditors $5 a photo giving you
your night time back.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it gave me that time withthe family.
Yeah, it gave me that personaltime back right.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's always important .
You know, as a photographeryeah, that was always.
You know, it was just hardbecause you're literally
shooting all day and editing allnight.
Yeah, like that's the rhythm,unless you outsource.
I know there's a lot ofphotographers who still enjoy
the editing and I kind of cringeat that going oh, come catch me
when things change because italways does yeah, of course, but

(30:22):
look, I used to love theediting too.
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah, absolutely, but back then,when I was editing, there was
no YouTube channels on how to doit.
I was going to say, yeah, therewas only deep forums you had to
sort of go in and it's justdifferent.
It's like everything'sdifferent now.
So evolved, you can jump onlineand learn how to do it in a
heartbeat.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, that's right, and all of the apps and programs
and, I guess, self-editing.
So then, yeah, chat about howI'm.
So I want you to share aboutMel and you coming together.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, so Mel was my third time lucky building the
system which I like in itselftoo.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
You know what I?

Speaker 2 (30:54):
mean, I had two knockdowns and then I met Mal
and we were just engaging him atthe start to build it.
When you're in any technologybusiness, let alone property
technology, you need someone whocan code right.
Pretty fun fact.
I actually grew up in a backshed with my pa, grandpa, and he

(31:15):
used to run the MS DOS onfloppy disk drives and we used
to go to computer swap meets, Iremember, in Melbourne on gravel
roads, and so he'd be lookingdown going wow.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
That's epic.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
He used to code back then.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Yeah, wow.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Fun fact my uncle just moved up from Melbourne
recently.
He told me that my pa and hismate they used to have massive
satellite dishes.
Yeah, yeah, they created thefirst Zoom they knew about.
Back then he didn't say Zoom,but my uncle said it was video
messaging and they could talk toeach other.
And I'm talking back in the day.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
How epic is that?
And I never knew about that.
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
So that's kind of where I came from, I guess, and
it's cool to see where it cametoday.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's awesome.
My dad was.
He had a really big fascinationwith computers and would build
them, and that was early 90s.
So same thing.
I can remember him doing thatand flight simulator like all
those kind of.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, speaking of flightsimulators, my wife's
grandfather.
He was one of the people whoinvented it.
Oh, there you go, as well ascertain bits with the runway
lights.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Wow, funny mentioning that.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
And then my grandpa was actually in aviation as well
, like in some of the wars, soit's kind of like Full circle.
It's funny how life just twistsyou and that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
So you knew that that coding component was so
important.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Oh, you know, I didn't really know.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
We all know what coding is kind of yes, but you
need a genius right.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, and back then I just didn't know what I needed.
I was just following my spirit.
I guess you'd say or followingthe heart, like it's like how
you need someone who can dowebsites, and coding is part of
that, of course, and yeah, we'rebeing business partners now.
I always go off Christmases onbad, bad with dates, but at
least eight years maybe notcoming into nine and we just

(32:54):
haven't looked back.
Like realistically, I think Ineeded the two knockbacks yes,
or the two failures yes To gainhis interest.
Yeah, I think if I'd have wentto him from the start, it
couldn't have worked out the wayit did.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
You know Mel was building.
I love motorbikes.
Yes, I remember walking thereand he's building like Travis
Pastrana's Nitro Circus onlineshop.
I'm like dude, this is so sick.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Amazing, I love motorbikes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I knewhim when I worked at the Chamber
of Commerce as well.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
That's who?
Yeah, so Was he the.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Is it still correct that he's the youngest person to
go to uni?

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, he was like.
To my knowledge, when I met him, he was the youngest person to
be accepted into university inAustralia.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, incredible.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
For mathematics.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
You know, I think he was accepted at age 12.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, amazing, and he couldn't go until he was 14.
It's incredible, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
And I think you know that just shows how different we
are.
But I think opposites attractright.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
And what commonalities would you have
Like?
What would you suggest to theanchoring?
I'm guessing probably values.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Just doing what we say.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, amazing, we haven't had one argument.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, I just Not one.
And it's just like do as yousay.
Yeah, it's pretty easy.
Yeah, it really is, I could saysomething else, but I won't say
it on air.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
We'll save that for after, but that's incredible.
That speaks volumes for who youboth are as people.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
I think you know, yeah, like just be a hard worker
and just be honest, and youknow just all that.
But I think every situation isdifferent.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
But you know I like it that we did a third time
lucky.
I still remember when I had topay him quite a substantial
amount of money when we weren'tbusiness partners and I'm like
damn here we go again.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I didn't even tell the wife, I was just going for
it, and did you?
You believed in the value,though I was scared shitless, to
be honest.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
And then during that time we had to buy another
business partner.
I had to refinance the house.
It was a good few hundredthousand dollars and we'd be
lucky to be making $1,000 amonth back then.
Well, we spoke about thatdidn't we?

Speaker 1 (35:00):
The years of no income, like that's the grind
that people don't see, and therefinancing a house when we're
having our first kid, yeah, thestress the worry.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
You know, totally put it on the line.
Yeah, and you know people saidI was crazy at the time.
I'm running around like aheadless chook.
I'm doing photo shoots.
I'm getting up at three o'clockin the morning.
We didn't you know.
We've got that rework button.
Yes, yeah, we never had oneback in the day, so I was the
rework button, so I'd be up atthree o'clock fixing all the
crap from the night beforestressed out going to the.

(35:30):
I do kickboxing which keeps myhead straight.
It really grounds, your courseany sort of martial arts.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
It really grounds you of course, any sort of martial
arts, Muay Thai, is it?
Yeah, Muay.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Thai.
My brother was Australianchampion.
We're very heavily tied up inthe scene especially Dad.
But you know, and it just setsyou up for the day, so I train
in the morning.
It makes you between photoshoots, going into the office,
answering phones, fixing theissues.
I did all that and this is foryou know, no pay just keep
putting money into tech yeah.
Yeah, it's crazy when you lookback at it.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
It sure is.
And well, crazy in a good way.
I mean, now we can reflect andlook back.
I mean, it's when you're inthat hustle and grind, isn't it?
But there's something you justfocus on your.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
you know, it's like I didn't listen to any noise
outside.
I just knew where I was hopingI was going, I was going.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
You know what I mean?
That was my star, I guess, andthat's what I was aiming for.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Absolutely, and I guess you know for the
detractors and those people thatsort of questioned you would
have had a lot of bloody goodsupporters behind you as well, I
bet.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah, I think I just stuck in, just got into it.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
I wasn't.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
You know, I was just working.
Yeah, absolutely Grinding youknow doing, seeing a few bits
and pieces here and there I wasjust working.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah.
So that comes with that comessacrifice.
So obviously you know I knowwe'll chat about, you know that
time that you miss with thefamily, but you know it would
have been the same as well.
I imagine in those years whenyou're grinding hard, you know
friends still partying.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Oh, you know all that .
But then you know, I'm overseaspartying.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, no one's ever seen.
You know, I know you liketequila.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, like you're in VIP parties inside VIP parties.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Like.
You know that speakeasy style,like the people we rub shoulders
with are like the titans of theindustry and you know
everything's free over there,whether it's on whether we're
paying for it, which the firstconference we went to we
couldn't even afford to go as acompany.
Yes, you know, I remember sortof slapping my credit card for
the drinks bills, and drinksaren't cheap in America.
You know that.
I know that, yeah and yeah like, but look, it's unfortunately,

(37:25):
you know.
You have to do it to get I just,you know, I'm not a big, I'm a
big drinker when I want to beyes.
But I just, I don.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Well, it's a social aspect isn't it as well?

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Well, that's what it is, Amy, to be honest, and
connecting and networking.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Like you're an incredibly smart business
operator, you know what thefoundation of a good business is
connection, like I said, doingsomething better than everyone
else.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
And just treating people like our clients are our
friends and they become reallygood friends, which is awesome,
Absolutely.
But like you've got to buildthat in the first place, Correct
, They'll see you at the booth.
We're always.
Our motto was first at thebooth last to leave.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yes, yeah, and that's still to this day.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
And we don't sit down , we don't have chairs, when
we're at the booth.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
We're always ready to go.
Yeah, I know.
That's like a rule was like wewent to say hello and then you
were like, you were straight on.
You were like, oh, I've got toget and I love that, and um you
know, I'm not.
Those conferences aren't cheap,mate you've got to get that roi,
but I understand that and Ithink that's really important.
Um, so let's just for those,because there will be people

(38:29):
that are listening in thatactually don't know what you
offer and I think it'd be remissof me not to allow you the
opportunity just to go reallydeep into each aspect and then
let's have a chat through,because obviously I've probably
utilised every aspect.
I you know, I'm always been anearly adopter, always one to try
and break a system but also to,yeah, jump on board, because I

(38:51):
know that every service that youoffer is incredibly vital in
the sales process, but also forour clients.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
And it depends the house right.
That's why we didn't wantsubscription.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Was that sort of something, that was an option.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
No day one.
It was never an option.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
But isn't it interesting too, how much we've
moved away from subscriptionmodels.
Back when we did it, everyonewas like you have to have it, we
have early VC venturecapitalists.
You have to have it.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
You have to have it.
You have to move to Sydney tomake this work.
If you want to be global,you've got to change the name.
Yeah, wow, I was just like.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Isn't that amazing For everyone that is listening
in.
There was a little middlefinger there.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
But you stuck to your guns In a nice way.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Of course, no, but agreed because you have to
Follow your own heart.
Yeah, absolutely so.
Yes, isn't that funny, though,again, how people think they
know the right thing when,ultimately, you've been so in
depth and you know what peopleare looking for.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
I just think you know .
Well, look, I suppose, yeah,boxbrowniecom.
We are at the moment, theworld's leading real estate
photo editing website.
Incredible, so think.
Photoshop on a menu.
I love it.
We just got our coffees off amenu.
Yes, everything has a presetprice.
Love that.
The price you see, is the priceyou pay.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
There's no hidden taxes unlike many other
countries out there.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
We have 24-7 customer support in four different
languages, 365 days a year, sothat's English, Spanish,
Japanese and French.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
And they are always available.
I tell you.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Always available.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
I'm running edits.
I think literally aftermidnight last night chatting to
Pooja and having amazingcustomer service.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
So behind the scenes we have 400 staff.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, it's amazing In 19 countries Incredible.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
That includes, obviously, all of our beautiful
customer service team management.
You know all that, all ofmyself and everyone else who
runs the business day to day.
Including editing no, yeah,that's coming.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Sorry, I'll zip now.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
No, that's okay, so that's just that just makes the
website operate Amazing.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
As do our editors.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
So that's our beautiful staff.
That's our Box Brandy family.
Let's do our editors.
So that's our beautiful staff.
That's our Box Brandy family.
Now we have over 2,000 editingteams.
So one team could be a solooperator.
One could have two 300 staffplus.
So that's a lot of mouths tofeed and we're 100% bootstrapped

(41:15):
or a self-funded business wherein our scale of where we are.
So you just said earlier, wehave just shy of 200,000 clients
right now self-funded and wehave paying clients in 117
countries.
It's incredible.
As for sign-ups we've had Ichecked about a year ago.
Yeah, we had A whole world insign-ups except two countries.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Can't wait, tell us.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
So I can't remember that.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
You're going to find out now.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah, look, I will.
I'll actually ask Mel and flickit to you.
Is that amazing?
But yeah, like.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
So how do you get and we'll go back to the products,
because that's a reallyimportant thing how do you get
that scale?

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Like.
How do you get to Word of likeand?
And you know how much we usedto travel, right?
We spent hundreds of thousandsand millions of dollars worth
per year on travel expenses.
Face-to-face.
We're flying to New York andstaying right on Thomas Square
at the Hyatt.

Speaker 1 (42:01):

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Yes, Proud to say we've done some very pimping
stuff.
I wish we had a video crewfollow us on the journey.
It would have been the crazieststory, I think, ever.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Absolutely.
You've definitely got a bookeror a docker in you, that's for
sure.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
But even just the people we rub shoulders with.
And you know one of my bestmates.
He's the number one agent atRIMAX in the world.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Another guy sold $5 billion worth of property.
Like these are the people we'rerubbing shoulders with private
jets, this and all that, but atthe end of the day it's word of
mouth, Totally of mouth is stillour highest form of advertising
.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
So advocates within the industry?
Oh no, it's more like anyone itcould be someone from your
office loves what we do.
Yeah, that's right, and they'lltell a friend yeah, correct.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Or yourself doing a great podcast and someone will
listen to it, and you're stilltelling a friend by doing this
Correct, which we're gratefulfor.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
So yeah, so like Blogs, yeah, so like Vlogs as
well.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
I know like All of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
Yeah, you've always just diversified and always made
sure that you're ever presentin front of the people that are
your consumers.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
You know we're doing blog or vlogs, if you want to
call it that where I'm teachingphotography training and
literally you know we film itall in this house and I'm used
to being behind the camera, notin front of the camera.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Oh you nail it, no.
Not in front of the camera.
Oh, you nail it, no.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
I know We've done a few together, oh, but if you saw
the early ones, they're prettycringe worthy.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Don't worry.
I did an intro for a video awhile ago and there was 15
outtakes and I just felt soembarrassed for the videographer
.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
It's like you get comfortable eventually, right.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Funny, funny, funny with the video vlogs, because
I'd never forget your shooting aproperty.
In how many seconds?
59 seconds or something.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Seven minutes.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Oh, seven minutes.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Got a lot of haters that one.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, we've spoken about that before.
I don't read it.
Well, don't chat about thehaters, tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Oh no, like you get a lot of you know any on social
media, whether you're aninfluencer or just posting, or
you've got videos.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
You have people.
We'll call them trolls, becausethat's what everybody knows
about.
I don't read it, and you knowwhat?

Speaker 2 (44:00):
I can guarantee you they would never say it to my
face.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Correct, that's exactly right.
Look, I think as well too.
You know, I always say thosethat are beneath you, or I say
those that are trying to pullyou down are already beneath you
.
And really, Really, it's not anaccident that your number
plate's Disruptor isn't it?
I've got a few.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Well, Disruptor.
Everyone calls us a digitalDisruptor.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, so I've got that.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, I've got Founder.
Yep, I've got ScaleUp on a bigute that I have because we're a
scale-up business now, not astart-up.
Yeah, amazing, so I've bought alot of PropTech number plates
because I'm very passionateabout really the, I suppose,
pioneering the way, because whenwe started doing this and
travelling the world, there wasno other business but PropTech
property technology that's theabbreviation for it.

(44:43):
Wasn't it really a thing?

Speaker 1 (44:45):
No, that's right.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Now it's just hundreds of companies and you
know when you're an Aussiecompany and got the flair kind
of we have you know.
There's a reason why I thinkpeople never forgot us.
Yeah, and I think we worked sohard up until COVID, where we
couldn't travel.
Anyway, no one forgot us.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Oh look, and I think that's the really important
thing, because you've done itthat many times and I think that
is that repetition of marketing.
But, like I said, it's alsoabout the delivery of product.
You've never hesitated to jumpon, you know, if there's been,
you know we will share thisfunny edit.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
You don't mind if I share that?
No, no, no, I love it.
Explain why, though?
Yeah, of course, which isalways good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
So a product, because we will talk about the products
on offer.
One is we get our dronephotographs.
They're amazingly well edited.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Aerial editing and drop pin options to show local
landmarks.
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Essentially, we had a jetty and I gave a mock-up.
Now I put the line in the wrongspot.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
So the mock-up would be you draw a duplicate image
where you want the localattraction.
So obviously an aerial photocan say a thousand words,
obviously that one photo canshow the whole area.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
So the beach is here, the shopping centre is here,
the school is here.
You know that one photo canshow the whole area.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
So the beach is here, proximity shopping centers here
, schools here, you know allthat sort of stuff.
So if you're an interstate,international buyer, correct you
know?
Hey, there's the house circled.
Yeah that's all the stuffthat's around it.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Yeah, and I laugh because you would laugh at me,
because I'm still, I'm stilldoing those in paint Like I'm
still in MS paint editing,dropping them in.
Anyway, I think we've got amarkup tool now you do, thank
you.
Thanks, brad, I will move tothat.
Yeah, honestly, time andefficiency.
I thought you were a dailyadapter, anyway.
So stupid me didn't put thebloody pointer mark down to the

(46:27):
actual jetty.
So when I wrote military jettyand then asked them to put the
pointer on the actual jetty,they said actual jetty, which
the irony is not lost on me.
But anyway, we had a laugh andyou know what?

Speaker 2 (46:39):
You got that cool rework button, haven't you, Mate
it was fixed back straight away.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
But, yeah, some of the awesome products and I'll
chat through, if you don't mind,some of the things that.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
I've used and what I love.
What do you use and maybe givethe viewers the benefits of what
could be cool.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
So I guess the most, I'd suggest, the product that
you're most famous for, I guessmost used by the people I know,
is the digital declutter.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Right.
So yes, virtual staging is whatwe're best known for.
Wow, because we actually do themost in the world, which is
pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
It's epic, so to get to virtual staging.
You need to remove the items,so the item removal tool, Well,
come on man, you're killing me.
Anyway, back to what I wassaying, is that the item removal
, so the reason that that hasbeen so powerful in our business
is about people's privacy.

(47:33):
Removing personal items,tenants in our business is about
people's privacy.
Removing personal items,tenants Definitely Digital
declutter.
I mean I've had team membersthat have spent a whole day
removing personal effects.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
If you drop something , you break it.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Yep, exactly, that's exactly what I was going to say,
marking walls Dropped heirloomexactly, and here in Australia,
$10 to have that whole thingdone.
I can't tell you the relief thatis in an appraisal when I sit
with a client and say you don'thave to worry about that, you'll
get that done.
Virtual so definitely thevirtual staging.
So I just did an amazing one.

(48:04):
So studio space, somulti-purpose studio space, so
it's currently set up with alounge and a work from home
space.
And then what we did and you'lllove this, because this is
something we worked on togetheris then we had that removed and
then we had it set up as a onebedroom apartment and then we
print that on a canvas and thenhave that an easel at the

(48:25):
property.
So I know we've done vlogsaround that.
I'd suggest that's probably justthat next level.
So certainly the reason forthat and I guess it's important
to explain the rationale.
Why certainly the reason forthat and I guess it's important
to explain the rationale.
Why is that?
When somebody sees a virtualstyled image online, sometimes
there's a little bit of pushback.
They come to a vacant home orit's felt a little bit

(48:47):
misleading.
They can't visualize a vacantspace.
So essentially, the reason whyI found that the easel worked
really well is.
They could then visualize it,but it also maintained that
level of trust, you know, and Ahundred percent.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
You know, I suppose, and you know it was a good tip
back in the day.
I believe that I sort of toldyou about it.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
I think we did that about.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
yeah, we did a video on it, which is great.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
About four years ago or something.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
And that was what our customers would always say.
That was the feedback.
They're like we do.
We were learning from ourcustomers by being on site at
these conferences.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
And I do remember that we'd share that and it
works great because you're beingtransparent.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Totally, that's right .
You know a lot of people Well,thanks Brad for the idea.
No, no, my absolute pleasure,and this is what we do,
absolutely, you know it's allabout giving back and just get
in.
You know, not everyone acts.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Amy, like you do people, you tell 10 people,
maybe one will do it.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, that's right, and you're that one?

Speaker 2 (49:34):
yeah, absolutely um, but I think a lot of people will
have the vacant image onlineand then have the virtual
staging and have a disclaimer onit.
Some people will just have thevirtual staging and then do the
art easel trick.
There's yeah, there's a fewways to bake the cake is what I
always say.
But correct, I think it'salways easy to be transparent
online and then when they getthere and meet you, amy, they're
already trusting you bettercorrect.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
That's exactly right, and I think you know like it's
a really good thing, isn't it,to chat about the misleading?
Uh, there's, there's definitelya lot out there, so it's always
about maintaining integrity oh,and it's even, like you know,
artificial intelligence.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
It's out there now absolutely look it's good, it's
gonna get great, yeah, but atthe moment you know it's skewing
the furniture, it's not adding.
You know.
You know the shadowing from thewindow sources.
If you've got multiple anglesof the same room in photos, it
doesn't do that yet.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
You can tell it's a bit plastic here, it will get
better yeah.
Much like the sky replacement.
Ai can do bits and pieces ofwhat we're doing.
Of course, when it's goodenough, I know we're going to be
implementing it.
Yes, At the moment, let's say,if you do a sky replacement and
they go over the power lines andthe antenna, you can get in
trouble for that.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
That's a big fine, that's a huge one, absolutely,
and you know when we're doinghand-tuned editing and what does
that mean?

Speaker 2 (50:47):
I suppose real humans doing the.
Photoshop, if that makes sensedo is not AI, except for our
property descriptions, whichwe'll get into later.
Yeah, sure, but all of ourediting is done by real people
and I've just got off thistraining, but I've been training
people the last three years.
I've ran a team of 30 where wesecret shop our editors, no
extra cost to you.

(51:07):
Yes, you might not even know wedid this, but I ran a team and
we rate our images from one tofive all of our top edits.
Yeah, I rate our images from oneto five, all of our top edits.
Yeah, I'm looking for thingslike what we just spoke about.
Or is the furniture got enoughshadowing, or is that item
removal?
Is that line of the tilestraight enough?
Yeah these what we're lookingat behind the scenes that you
don't even know about.
So we're, we're, we're onlywith the rating system.

(51:28):
Only our good editors get thework, the bad ones get
suspension, which means you, asthe client, amy get, get the
best result.
You don't even realise that'shappening.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Yeah, absolutely, and I guess that's great feedback
for you as an end user as wellas because I have sometimes had
like a quality controller who'llcome back and say, hey, we can
do a little bit better.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah, yes, there you go, and I love that, and so it's
all those things, but I thinkit's.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
you know it could be an error on my behalf, like our
actual j, and I think, too, likeit's a new system.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
What we're doing, no one's done it before.
Still to this date,everything's custom.
You know, we, us as what do youcall it?
Us as business owners, we feellike we're building the system
for you the best way we can, butwho's saying?

Speaker 1 (52:14):
that we're doing it right.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yeah, and sometimes it can be our editors.
Sometimes it can be clientssubmitting wrong or not
understanding there's options,but that's like any business.
That's why it's great to havecustomer service always
available and always listen toevery problem, whether it's good
or bad, and just get to thebottom of it.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
We've just evolved so much.
So what I love is that you knowwe've been able to do sort of
agency templates andeverything's pre-formatted.
You know it's evolved and grownso much and I love that.
So some other things that we doare 3D renders.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yes, yes, I knew you'd like me to talk about that
.
Yeah, I suppose.
And people who don't know whata render is, it's an artist's
impression or think a photo of abuilding or development that's
not built yet.
You'll usually see them onvacant blocks of land and on
signboards, or sometimes on thefence.
They have that nice mesh theyprint on.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yeah, that's what we did.
Worked with on a vacant land inMumbai.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
So, yeah, it's a really, really good aspect.
So you really good aspects.
You've got to block a land,you've got to put a house on it
or a massive commercial factoryor whatever that is shopping
centre.
We can superimpose that so youcan visualise what's going to
get built.
You know off the plan sales.
That's how builders anddevelopers do it.
We also do the 360-degreerender virtual tours so you can
almost scan a QR code andliterally walk through the

(53:31):
property like it's CGI.
And that's what snagged usAmerica's Largest Home Builder,
dr Horton, because we did thatand everything else we offer.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Amazing At a low cost option as well.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Has to be low cost.
Yeah absolutely, and that'sreally what we're all about.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Yeah, so, and then we will.
Let's definitely get into Snap,Snap, Snap, because I we'll do
that, but before we go there, Ialso love the 360 virtual tour.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
And you're just saying off air.
Like you know, the officebought a camera, yep, didn't use
it, yep.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
You knew it was there Once again, you just acted on
it.
Yeah, so it's a credit toyourself.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Oh, it's just amazing to have that opportunity, and I
guess you know we were reallyfortunate to have you do a
training session.
I then forgot half of it,didn't I?

Speaker 2 (54:17):
But we've got vlogs on that.
I know, Obviously you're local.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
We've got the privilege of doing it.
You did give me training before.
Yeah, any excuse to catch up.
I'm good.
I love we got that.
You can't lock me in an officeforever.
I love being outside that.
You know within the first dayof a property going live.
I had 40 views of that and whatyou know just to explain to our
listeners.

(54:41):
You know that allows the userto walk through at their own
pace.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
And they get to walk the areas they want to walk in
first Correct.
Unlike a video, you're showingthem where they want to go
Correct.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
They go oh, I'm not going to go to the hallway.
I'm going to go to the bedroomhere first.
I'm going to go up, I'm goingto go down.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
So they control the experience.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
No hidden secrets.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
No, and you know they start at $20.
If you've got your own camera,you just do the unedited tours,
like I told you to.
If you want to edit them andhave a professional a photo,
yeah and virtually styled.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
you can do as well.
We can do all that, yeah,absolutely.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
But I think for $20 buying price for 15 shots, I
believe it is you can walkthrough a property, yeah it's
incredible it costs you $20.
It's back overnight, and what Ilove about virtual tours is you
just had 40 people go throughthat property Before they call
you.
You know that they'relegitimised.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Correct, that's exactly right.
It's a pre-qualification.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Yeah, so you're not saving 20 minutes driving there,
half an hour inspection, 20minutes to your next one.
You've sort of already got thattime back for $20.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, it's an interesting thing.
There's obviously lots ofconversations for and against
with all components of marketing.
I mean, for me it's reallyabout the buyer having a
wonderful experience and nottaking any.
I guess not putting anyroadblocks in their place, Just
taking any.
I guess, not putting anyroadblocks in their place, Just
giving them everything they needto make a decision.
That's exactly right.
So it's been a really goodasset.
And then Snap, Snap, Snap.
So that is, oh, you're excited.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Oh look, it's Snap Snap, snap.
It's another world first.
Yes, Much like our 360 rendersthe way we offer them.
We've had a few world firsts, Iguess you know for our, you
know for our business, which isgreat, but it's a.
It's an iPhone app.
The Android version is only acouple of weeks away from from
being, from being live.
So if you are an Android user,let's give everyone who listens

(56:24):
to this a free trial.
Amazing, look, I'm not scaredto give my email out.
People say I'm not the, not theaverage CEO for doing so.
I don't care, brad.
I don't care, brad atboxbrandycom, if you haven't
tried Snap Snap, snap, we'd loveto get you on it.
It feels like I'm cheating whenI use it.
I know the nuts and bolts ofbeing a real estate photographer
.
It's my whole knowledge.

(56:45):
In an app, you just push abutton and it does everything,
like it brackets, so it takesmultiple photos of the same shot
at different light variants.
It actually takes up to 70micro photos behind the scenes.
It's amazing it took Mel andour awesome development team
about three years to hack intothe camera algorithm in the
Apple.
We had nine cameras to do onthat one Android, we've got over

(57:08):
150.
Wow.
That's why if that makes sense,apple, they have so many.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
That's why Wow.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
It's a true game changer.
And everyone says game changer.
I promise that's what it is.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
So we just spoke about it.
So where I position that in mymarketing campaign?
So I use it as a coming soonfeature.
So we will always engage aprofessional photographer and
we'll have them on site andwe'll do that as per our brand
standards.
But speed, you know, speed's soimportant in this industry and
the opportunity is there to beable to get photos directly to

(57:45):
the buyer audience.
So we have the ability withrealestatecom and also domain,
to send sneak peeks out andobviously we want to build that
momentum before the propertygoes online.
So I just gave you an exampleof a property.
So we appraised that on Monday,signed it up on the spot, had
the tripod in the car, poppedthe camera on it.
It was quite you'd laugh at me.

(58:05):
It was a pool with a lockedgate and so I put the camera on
the other side of the gate andhit it through.
But I mean I think you sort,you know, guarantee 24-hour
return.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
It was back the same day we do um the, so the app
does a few things.
It does image enhancement, yeahso for those that don't know,
it's two dollar edit here inAustralia, dollar 60 in the US.
In the US, um, it's 17photoshop tasks.
It's the exact same task.
So I used to obviously work foryour, for your bosses back in
the day and yourself takingphotos.

(58:36):
It was the exact same editingsequence, if you want to call it
that I did to all my photos soblue in the sky, green in the
grass, lightning, brightening,contrast saturation,
straightening verticals, becauseobviously wide-angle lenses do
that.
So it's all that for $2.
So the app does that.
What else it does?
It does your digital declutteror item removal.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
It does our day-to-dusk edit, which is our
twilight effect.
It looks like a dust shoot.
Yes, proven to get five timesmore clicks here in Australia.
That's REA stats.
And lastly, it does virtualstaging off the phone.
So that's why it's a totalworld, first for a couple of
sections, but the imageenhancement.
So if you just have a houseit's staged like so many of your

(59:17):
properties are you just go inwith your phone and just
literally snap, snap, snap, takeyour shots, pardon the pun.
And if you submit those on site, by the time you've walked out
the door it's in the system.
The average turnaround time,mel tells me, is three hours.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
I've had people get them back in 20 minutes and I'm
like don't think it's going tobe like every time and
everyone's like no, no, we'restoked, like we get it.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Well, and I think you really inspired that you know
to take that step and to go okay, well, if you're taking a form
six, so that's the appointmentform that We'll take some images
now out the facade and thenwe'll do the.
You know complex facilities andthen you know same day you've

(01:00:00):
got that.
You know that would be sovastly different, I'd imagine,
to your real estate.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
It's so different, or we even train people.
Hey, everything you've said is100% correct.
That's usability.
Let's say you're going for alisting, what's going to make
you stand out?
So, like you, could, you know,do the old secret, drive up to
the house, snap a shot at thefront.
You obviously don't want tojump the fence and go out the
back or anything.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
You might look like a stalker, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
But grab a nice one at the front or a couple of
different angles maybe one ofthe lifestyle area, the shops
down the road or something likeand do your $2 edits and have
those ready to show your ownersand go.
This is what I've already donefor you, but you can go a few
steps further.
What I would do is take a photoat the front and then do the
day to dusk edit.
That's $5, a beautiful dusksunset.
We turn the lights on.

(01:00:45):
It looks like you've shot it atnight.
They're going to be like howthe heck did Amy take a photo of
a house so good?
Yeah, absolutely.
But I'd go one step further andgo online and see if they had a
floor plan and you could justgrab the floor plan online
redraw it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Yeah, that's a great tool that you've got as well $30
, $35.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
We redraw any builder's plans, architect's
files or even an old floor plan.
Yes, and we can put it in yourMcGrath template, or we have
many other templates to choose,or we can create a custom
branded template.
That way, you're going to go upwith a dust photo and a floor
plan already and go.
I'm your marketing agent ofyour choices.
I've already done this Just toshow you what I can do, being
proactive.
And then I've got all thiswhole other range of suites that

(01:01:24):
I can offer you if we need it,and this is what I'm doing.
Really just take control andjust put your best foot forward.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
And look forward.
And look, you've always hadsuch incredible ideas and, yes,
certainly, like I said, I'lljump on board as many of them as
I can.
Already a few lessons from me.
So, look, the business is goingfrom strength to strength.
Obviously, you're aware ofdisruptions in the industry,
which is awesome, always at theforefront.
If you weren't doing whatyou're doing now, what would you

(01:01:52):
do?

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
That's a really crazy question.
Look, that's a hard one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
I love that because you love what you do right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Oh, I just think this is what I had to do.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
I can't answer that.
I don't know yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
And you know I often think the question through
myself.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
I might be selling real estate.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Well, it's always a desk.
So you've just come back fromBali.
Where else do you like totravel?
Probably more so with thefamily than all the others.
To be honest, it used to beAmerica, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
You know, as a kid I was very fascinated.
You know all the motorbikevideos I watched were all over
there.
Look, I love it.
Probably my two favourite spotsover there were Denver and
Arizona.
Yeah, awesome two favouritespots over there were Denver and
Arizona.
Yeah, awesome, love it.
You know I've done America morethan anyone I know, so that's a
tough question.
Look, we love Bali because ofthe beautiful nature and you

(01:02:46):
know just what goes on, but I'mhappy on my own.
Back to Allstep, you know aswell.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
So special isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
You know I've got a caravan.
I love taking the kids outsideand keeping them off the Wi-Fi
where I can Like I enjoymotorbike riding.
Are the kids?

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
on motorbikes.
Getting them into it Like youknow, my oldest now loves it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Yes, but I don't yeah , so just I don't push anything
on my kids.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
I let them just if they like what I yeah amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
I wouldn't mind going to Dubai, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
Yeah, nice that's probably somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
I think once again for the kids.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
The resorts over there and things I just want to.
Anywhere the family has a goodtime, yeah amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
I've seen enough of the world to.
It's incredible, isn't it, howyour priorities shift.
I know COVID was a huge gamechanger for your business.
That game changer for yourbusiness Like that, was
literally probably a really goodblessing to be able to enjoy
your backyard.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
It was good being able to be around my kids a lot
more.
And then when COVID startedopening up and I started
travelling again, you know likeI got to go to Cannes in France.
That was really cool.
I've been to so many countriesI never would have travelled to
if it wasn't for the business.
But yeah, I just think youcan't get that time back with
your kids.
Yeah, it's such a special time.
Eight and a four-year-old.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Freddie and.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Freddie and Benji yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
We say Freddie, because I've got my little pug,
freddie and I love it.
Freddie and Benji, what lightsthem up?
What's their?

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
passions If I told you they enjoy watching kids and
adults unwrap presents onYouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
I love it.
That's so cute.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Don't you hate it?
No, it's not cute, it'sterrible Far out.
And they like watching this guyplay Minecraft.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Yeah, okay, and they've got Minecraft.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
They don't play it.
They don't even know how toplay it.
So, they get sucked into thiscontent.
That's sort of numbing, I feel.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Yeah, that's being honest no, no, no, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
But my oldest son, you know, putting a positive on
all that because I get the kidsare going to have tech in their
lives.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
But you need to teach them like just real life
without it?
Yeah, you know, because kidscan frequent there's no Wi-Fi.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
We just spoke about that, though didn't we about
even for us.
That though didn't we abouteven for us?
Like you know, we're bothpretty tech obsessed.
We're pretty like that is ourworld, isn't it?
Content and being online, butthere is nothing more empowering
.
I just went to lady elliotisland for two days.
We have no internet, never beenthere before.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
I want to go yeah but , my son plays soccer yeah, he's
picked up soccer and you know,barley, we bought heaps of like
messy singlets yeah yeah, allthese soccer jerseys, um soccer
and I live.
We just got rid of our littleplayer at the back.
I've got soccer fields therenow.
I love nothing more thankicking the ball with my son.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
I'm an AFL kid.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
I played that all growing up.
But he plays soccer and I can'tbe more happier for him, and
his team has not stopped winningsince.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
How good is that.
My dad was a soccer refereegrowing up, so he always had the
bag of soccer balls in the car.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
My son's got the full .
Steve Irwin mullet.
It's crazy.
Best probably haircut.
I've seen on a kid and he lookslike Beckham out there playing.
And he just picked it up andwent for it Isn't it amazing.
That's his passion, Yepabsolutely.
I said to him yesterday I saidwhat do you love most about
school?
He said PE.
The same way.
So get them active, get themburning some energy.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
Absolutely and enjoying life together.
What was the best day of yourlife?
Brad for the pony.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
There's probably been a lot.
You can pick as many days asyou want.
No, let's just say, oh,probably obviously having kids.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
Like you know there's plenty, but just having my kids
around me, yeah, like playingsoccer down the beach, just just
anything with my kids it's soworthwhile, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
all those moments of getting through to where you are
just just moments with the kids.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
I think you know I bought bought a book on the way
home from bali.
My son's like never seen youread before dad yeah, I read all
the time he goes, nah, but likea book.
You know, I'm probably readingbooks in the study, doesn't see,
and stuff like that.
Yes, but just things like thatyou love reading.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
No, but once again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
I just told myself since I turned 40, I've just got
to pick it up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Yeah, absolutely that's another thing, yeah,
awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Just trying to broaden the brain power.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
Yeah, and what are you reading?

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
Rich Dad, poor Dad.
Yeah, rich dad, poor dad.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Yeah, cool.
I've actually always wanted toread it, so have I, and to be
honest everything he waslearning at age nine.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Robert, I'm already teaching my son.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Isn't that epic?
Are you a book lender?
Do you lend a book or you keepit on the bookshelf.
You can have it up.
We've got a book library hereat work.
Some people are either one wayor the other.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
I've got some good books at home too that I've got
to reread, but yeah, I've alwayswanted to read it.
Sort of the airport, obviouslythe flight back from Bali, there
was no TVs and the kids had gotthe iPads and the wife had
Netflix.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
I'm like, I'm going to read a book.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
I read it nonstop for five hours.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yeah, I love it.
I'm such a bookworm.
I've got a massive bookshelfnext to and whilst I don't get a
chance to delve into many ofthem, even just looking at them
sometimes is just theinspiration.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
I think I've got to get audible.
I think I'd be better listeningthan reading.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
Yeah, I shouldn't give a free plug, but I have on
Spotify.
I get the free audio book 15hours.
So with premium you get 15hours a month free.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
There you go.
I did see it there, but yeah,okay, there you go, there you go
, all right there you go, Bradfavourite meal and drink.
Oh, that's a tough one.
Oh, I used to love pizza, yes,but I've sort of cut things out
of my diet.
Now, yep, I'm going to sayMexican food.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
Yeah, it's just Like.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
you know, even I've got a smoker at home, like I
love steak, I love brisket and Ilove a good burrito.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
So good have you been to Barbecue Mafia in Brisbane.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
No, I haven't.
Oh, that is good, but I've justbeen to Austin, texas, about
five times in a row.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Have you been to Franklin Barbecue?
Aaron Franklin's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
I've been everywhere, everywhere, man.
That's my favourite.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
We lined up.
It's so funny because we wentto Franklin's Barbecue in Austin
and we were like when's thebest day to go?
And they said Wednesday and DB,and I got there far earlier
than we like to wake up.
You got the chair and we got tomeet Aaron.
And I tell you what, if I couldjust take that tray and to
bring that home was just like.
It's sort of like oh, I won'tLike.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
I got there.
I'm like it's good, but it'snot Like I thought it was good,
good, but I was expectingsomething else.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
I'm just like oh, we can cook stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
You can do it at home , australia has pretty good
stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
Absolutely we are very blessed, you know like
we're very Americanised, yes,and that's what I sort of feel
sometimes too.
But yeah, barbecue's great, youcan't fault it.
But the Mexican food in America, oh I know, that was my
favourite in Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
We used to go to I think it's called Torchy's Tacos
.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Oh yeah, oh, so good Anyway we'll be back there later
this year.
And favourite drink like I'mjust going to go with beer, yeah
, Because you can't get it.
It's called Modelo.

Speaker 1 (01:09:24):
Yeah, no Modelo.
So now it's a UFC brand beer.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
I've been drinking it for like 10 years.
Yes, but you know I love goodfiltered water at home.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Yeah, nice, aren't we blessed to have it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Yeah, well, I've got, you know, filters and stuff.
In my house I shower infiltered water.
Yeah, epic, I do all that sortof thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
So has that been something that has sort of
transitioned?
You mentioned about you know,making you know different
choices.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
No, I think when was it?
I think I've been drink.
I think when I was 20.
Now going back, it was abirthday party.
It was a birthday and mom'slike what do you want?
I said, oh, if everyone's chipin and I'll pay the rest just to
get a filtered water tap athome.
Yes, yes, yeah I don't know ifthat's the best one to get, but
it's still filtered.
Yeah, there's lots of stuff inyour water.
If you didn't realize, team yep, um, and only recently we we

(01:10:09):
got it redone and I said youknow what I want to?
I want to start showering infiltered water too.
So I'm double filtered.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
Epic, that's so good.
So just because I'm like water.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
Your body's made up of 80% of it right, absolutely
so.
That was you know.
But you know I'll drinkanything within reason, you know
.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
Yeah, and I think that's the thing, isn't it?
Like you can do, you can havethe times where you had you kind
.
That sort of moderation levelis as well.
We oh gosh, we have spoken.
I knew we would talk forever,but I hope this is the first of
many catch-ups that we have.
The whole premise behind thepodcast is really to I guess you

(01:10:46):
know, to literally give beyondthe signboard.
You know so many people thinkthat real estate is literally
put a signboard up and a soldsticker.
I'm sure there's probably acouple of you know peaks in the
industry that you've seen wherethat happened, but really you
know it's a lot of hard workthat goes behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
It's not all coffee catch-ups.
And you know, podcasts, is it?

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
No, that's exactly right.
But I think you know what I'veloved most is having people and
being able to shine a spotlighton your business.
You as a person as well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
person as well, so let's end with your favourite
quote or saying it's probablyone that my brother probably put
on.
Well, I said it before.
I think the more you sweat andpee, the less you bleed, and war
, and I think that comes.
That sort of same sort of thingis like do what you say, be a
hard worker, you know.
I just think it's all thosethings we've really seen
collectively in this podcastLike you get out what you put in

(01:11:37):
.
That's probably another one.
I think it's kind of all thesame thing.
It's like you know, work ashard as you can and generally
you know there's a better chanceit could pay off for you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
Yeah, absolutely, and I love that you did.
You know sort of delve in andsay is life, isn't it ultimately
?
But I think you know you, you,along with other guests, you
know there's a real common theme, which is hard work,
determination, self-belief, um,and being a bloody good human
being.
Like I said, I think,ultimately, you know um.

(01:12:06):
If you've got those and you'reon the way, um, does it?
Does it always turn out?
Maybe not best laid plans, but,like you said, there's always a
a positive in even those toughtimes.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Yeah, and I think you just got to.
You know it's just yeah, life'sdifficult and I think the way
life is moving so quickly nowwith technology, it's scary.
So you've got to keep up withit Absolutely, and if you don't,
you will be left behind.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
Perfect.
So I think the key messagethere is keep up with technology
, but get off it if you can aswell.
Enjoy the time A hundredpercent.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
You know moderation right.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Absolutely All right, Brad.
It has been absolutely amazingto have you Fist pump, Fist pump
and look forward to anothercatch-up soon.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Likewise Thanks, Amy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Beyond the Signboard.
We trust you enjoyed it as muchas we enjoyed making it for you
.
If there are any topics youwant covered in the future, make
sure you reach out and let usknow.
Also, feedback and suggestionsare appreciated almost as much
as likes, shares and downloads.

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